Donald Trump has passionately disputed a shocking poll in Iowa that showed Kamala Harris leading the former president 47% to 44% in the typically red state.
“No president has done more for FARMERS and the great state of Iowa than Donald J. Trump,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network Sunday morning. “In fact, it’s not even close! All the polls, except one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it completely wrong last time, have me WAY positive.”
Trump continued, in all caps: “I love the farmers, and they love me. And they trust me.” More than 85% of Iowa’s land is used for agriculture and it produces more corn, hogs, eggs, ethanol and biodiesel than any other state.
On Saturday, the Selzer Poll for the Des Moines Register newspaper showed the vice president leading her Republican rival by three points. Selzer is a well-respected polling organization with a strong track record in Iowa; she rose to fame in the polls in 2008 when she predicted that a virtually unknown senator, Barack Obama, would defeat front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses.
If Harris were even competitive in Iowa — which Trump won in both 2016 and 2020 — it could radically reshape the race.
The pollster told MSNBC on Sunday that Harris was leading in early voting in Iowa “because of her strength among women in general, and even more so among women 65 and older. Her margin is more than 2 to 1 – and this is an age group that is turning out to vote or voting early in disproportionate numbers.”
Earlier on Sunday, Trump’s campaign released a memo from the country’s top pollster and top data consultant calling the Des Moines Register poll “a clear outlier” and saying that an Emerson College poll — also released Saturday — showed the state of better reflected the Iowa electorate. .
The Emerson poll found that 53% of likely voters support Trump and 43% support Harris, with 3% undecided and 1% planning to vote for a third-party candidate.
The Trump campaign, which many Democrats say is setting the stage for a series of legal challenges to influence the election results, also said in an email that the Des Moines Register poll and a subsequent New York Times poll swung the state poll, with Harris came out ahead in four of the elections. seven states, is “being used to push a narrative of voter suppression against President Trump’s supporters.
“Some in the media are choosing to amplify a frenzied attack to dampen and diminish voter enthusiasm,” the statement added.
Last week, Trump said, “Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught, at massive levels rarely seen before,” but provided no evidence for this claim. A Harris campaign official said the “cheating” claim was an example of Trump trying to sow doubt in the electoral system because he feared he would lose.
The claims come as a federal judge plans to decide whether Iowa officials can continue trying to remove hundreds of potential noncitizens from the voting rolls, even as critics say the effort could deter recently naturalized citizens from voting .
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, a Republican, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he is confident Trump will “win Iowa with confidence.”
When asked if Trump is having trouble winning over female voters, Burgum said, “I would be surprised, completely shocked if that was anything close to what is happening in Iowa.”
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Burgum pointed to national polls showing Harris and Trump tied.
“I think that’s the feeling I get on the ground. It’s a very tight race. A decision will be made on Tuesday,” Burgum added.
But speaking to MSNBC, Democrat Wes Moore, governor of Maryland, said the Des Moines Register poll, which puts Harris ahead of Iowa but still within the margins of error, is “in line with what we see on the ground ”, especially among female voters.
Moore continued: “We’re seeing an energy that I don’t think has been there for a while, where we continue to see where women understand firsthand, what’s at stake, that they understand the dynamic and the distinction between these two candidates can literally understand. don’t be grimmer when you talk about a future vision for the country.”
